Research on working life
What is currently happening in the working life of the Nordics?
What is Finnish working life like? What do employees and job seekers think – and what are the issues on the desks of private and public sector employers? We regularly survey and analyse the direction of working life in the Nordic countries.
Working Life Survey 2025
Employed people feel that their well-being and lifestyles have improved. The attitudes and intentions of the employed do not yet show signs of an improving labour market situation. Expectations for better management have increased. The results come from Barona’s annual survey of working Finns’ expectations and intentions in the Working Life Survey.
The main general findings of the survey:
35% of employed people are currently considering a job change.
15% of respondents have changed jobs in the last year. The highest proportion of respondents aged under 30 (28% of respondents in this age group) have changed jobs.
Only 13% of those who have changed jobs are dissatisfied with their last job change.
7% of those in employment have changed their sector of activity in the last year. Less than 5% of those aged 40 and over have changed their job.
Intentions to change jobs differ between sectors and regions:
The sectors most likely to have changed jobs in the last year are property management and cleaning (22% of respondents), social work and health (21%) and commerce (17%).
The sectors most likely to be considering a change of job at the moment are commerce (43%), property management and cleaning (41%) and logistics (40%).
The sectors least likely to consider changing jobs were the public sector (28%), the third sector (29%) and construction (30%).
Regionally, the highest rates of respondents considering changing jobs were found in North Karelia (44% of respondents in the region), Lapland (43%) and Päijät- and Kanta-Häme (40%).
Do you want to see all the details? You can find them here. (In Finnish)
Are you interested in industry and regional results? You can find them here. (In Finnish)
Changing jobs or industries is always a big decision with significant uncertainties. The proportion of people dissatisfied with the change can be considered very low, suggesting that recruitment processes in Finnish working life generally give a realistic picture of the new job.
The experience of well-being has improved
69% of employed people consider themselves to be feeling well, up 3 percentage points from a year ago.
Employed people consider themselves to have eaten healthier (+2 percentage points), slept better (+2 percentage points) and exercised better (+1 percentage point).
At the same time, 58% (+2 percentage points compared to last year) of respondents felt that their stress and stress levels had increased. The experience of stress has increased throughout the measurement history of the survey.
More than two thirds (72% of respondents) are anxious about the thought of working beyond the age of 70.
How people working in different sectors perceive their own well-being:
The lowest levels of perceived well-being were found in the travel and hospitality sector (62% of respondents), the property management and cleaning sector (66%) and the construction sector (66%).
The best perceived well-being was in the 3rd sector (76%), the public sector (75%) and the logistics sector (75%).
Personal resources at work were perceived to be weakest in marketing and other creative industries (57%), travel and restaurants (58%) and banking and insurance (61%).
Self-efficacy was perceived to be highest in IT and telecoms (77%), the public sector (74%) and the third sector (74%).
It’s great to see that working people feel that they are moving, sleeping and eating better. At the same time, the year-on-year increase in the stress and demands of working life is worrying. It is important for every employer to be aware of the wellbeing of their staff and ensure that they have easy and flexible access to the support they need.
High demand for AI skills
82% of respondents consider themselves able to adapt to the changing demands of working life.
What skills do people in work need, top 3: professional substantive skills (36% of respondents), AI skills (27%) and digital skills (26%)
59% of those in employment are willing to work in a multilingual working environment or team.
Domestic small or medium-sized enterprises are the preferred employer for Finns: almost half (48%, up 2 percentage points) of respondents think so.
Key skills needs by sector:
Professional skills are most sought after in the IT and telecom sectors (55% of respondents in these sectors) and in banking and insurance (49%).
AI skills are most wanted in banking and insurance (53%) and IT and telecom (49%).
The need for language skills was most pronounced in sector 3 (36%) and banking and insurance (35%).
Management skills are most needed in the tourism and hospitality sector (35%) and banking and insurance (26%).
The Working Life Survey, conducted since 2021, interviewed 2 008 employed Finns aged 18-67. The survey data, representative by gender, age and place of residence, was collected by Norstat in November-December 2024.
Do you want to see all the details? You can find them here. (In Finnish)
Are you interested in industry and regional results? You can find them here. (In Finnish)
Any questions or comments?
bVoice Youth Pulse
What do young people think about work?
Barona’s bVoice Youth Pulse is a survey of young adults aged 18-29 about their views on work, well-being and the future.
Youth Pulse Nordic 2024
Almost half of young people in the Nordic countries do not want to work at weekends. This is according to the Youth Pulse Nordic survey conducted by Barona in November 2024:
- More than half of young women in Finland are anxious about the idea of working beyond the age of 70.
- For young people in Sweden, the most popular job is a self-employed person or company, while for Finns it is a domestic SME.
- Young Finns use technology, such as artificial intelligence, in their job search half as much as their western neighbours.
- Around a third (32%) of young people in the Nordic countries have a job profile that is clearly different from their real personality.
- 56% of young people in the Nordic countries said they were prepared for AI to be a key tool at work in the future.
- Well over half (57%) of young people in the Nordic countries expect transparent salary progression in line with the accumulation of skills and experience.
616 young people from Finland, Sweden, and Norway answered the survey, which Norstat conducted and collected data for in November 2024.
Young people today really appreciate flexibility and a good work-life balance. They also want to know how their pay is determined and how it might change over time. Even though new pay-performance rules are on the way, employers looking to attract younger talent shouldn’t wait around for those changes to kick in.
Do you want to research the results further?
Contact us
If you have any questions about our studies or if you want to hear more about the results, please don’t hesitate to contact our communications team, who can direct you to the right direction!